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Boson Product Support Topics

Welcome to Boson’s online customer support!

We’ve provided some answers to common support questions below. If you do not see the answer to your question on this page, please open a support ticket in your Boson account so that we can assist you further.

To log into your Boson account, please click Log In at the top of the page, then My Account, then Support Tickets. We will respond to your support ticket as soon as possible. Customer service is available Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Eastern US time, excluding major holidays.

If you experience a problem while activating an exam, you can try the following solutions to resolve it.

Please submit a support ticket if you are having activation problems and provide as much information as you can so that we can assist you quickly.

Verify that you have entered your user name and password correctly. Passwords are case-sensitive, so you should ensure that Caps Lock is not enabled when you enter your user name and password.

Verify that you have entered the Activation Key correctly and that you are using the correct key for the correct product. You can copy and paste your Activation Key from the purchase receipt you received or by accessing your account on the Boson website and selecting the Purchase History tab. Activation Keys are version and product specific. Therefore, you will only be able to use the key to activate one product. For example, a key for the Boson ExSim-Max for CCNA 640-802 practice exam will not activate a Cisco Press for CCNA ExSim practice exam, because they are created by different vendors.

Try temporarily disabling your User Account Control (UAC), firewall, and anti-virus applications. Occasionally, security software can cause an activation or installation problem. If the Boson Exam Environment (BEE) is still not able to access our activation server, you may need to consult your IT administrator and verify that your computer is not accessing the Internet via a proxy server.

If your computer is running Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you might need to run the software as an administrator. You can accomplish this by right-clicking the icon you are using to launch the software and selecting Run as Administrator.

If your computer is not able to access the Internet, you will not be able to activate an exam that is delivered through the BEE.

You will be asked a few interactive questions that will enable us to direct your feedback to the correct department.

The first question is whether or not your feedback is about the exam content.
Click Yes if you wish to submit feedback about a question or an explanation, click Next, type in your comments, and click Submit.
You should click No if you are having a problem with the software or wish to make a feature request.

If you selected No,you will be prompted to choose whether you want to submit a feature request or to let us know about a problem with the application.
After you have made your choice; click Next,type in your comments, and click Submit.

Please Note:
When you submit bugs, a more detailed summary will better help us pinpoint the actual problem.

Please let us know if you find any problems with the exam content. Examples of exam content related issues may include missing answers, incorrect answers or explanations, or an inability to select more than one answer when multiple answers are correct.

Yes, Boson does offer discounts, called Special Offers, on certain products based on your product purchase or activation history on our site. To find your Special Offer, please log in to your Boson account on our site, then click My Account, then Special Offers.

The majority of our software products are only available via download from our website. There is nothing to ship for these orders and therefore no shipping fees. We do sell some audio products on CD, and a shipping charge is assessed on these orders. If you are purchasing a product on CD, you will be able to select the shipping option of your choice during the checkout process.

ExSim and ExSim-Max Products
No returns or exchanges will be accepted or refunds granted for products purchased and delivered electronically once an activation key has been entered, except under the terms and conditions of Boson's No Pass, No Pay ExSim-Max Guarantee.

If the product activation key has not been entered, the customer has thirty (30) days from the date of purchase to return the product for refund. All sales are final thirty (30) days from date of purchase.

If the ExSim or ExSim-Max product was discounted or part of a kit, the refund will be prorated to reflect the actual purchase price of the product.

NetSim Products
If you are not satisfied with your NetSim purchase, you may return or exchange the purchased product within the first forty-eight (48) hours (the "Grace Period") after the product activation key has been entered, provided the activation occurred within thirty (30) days from the date of purchase. No returns or exchanges will be accepted or refunds granted following the initial forty-eight (48) hours from product activation. The Grace Period is not applicable to manual offline activations provided by Boson due to customer’s lack of internet access.

If the product activation key has not been entered, the customer has thirty (30) days from the date of purchase to return the product for refund. All sales are final thirty (30) days from date of purchase.

If the NetSim product was discounted or part of a kit, the refund will be prorated to reflect the actual purchase price of the product.

Boson Kits
Boson Kits offer savings off the combined list price of various product combinations, including ExSim-Max practice exam products related to specific vendors. Certain vendors might release updated versions of the related exam. If the vendor releases an updated version of the exam and if Boson offers an ExSim-Max product for that updated version, you can exchange that ExSim-Max product within six (6) months from the date of your Kit purchase. Valid only for ExSim-Max products purchased as part of a Boson Kit.

Other Terms and Conditions
Due to the nature of the Internet, online ordering your purchase from www.boson.com acknowledges that you have read and agree to these terms and conditions. Boson Software, LLC reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of sale any time.

I purchased a product from the Boson website and would like to find my receipt. How can I do that?

You can view your purchase history on our site by logging in to your Boson account, clicking My Account, and then clicking Purchase History. If you purchased a product from Cisco Press or McGraw-Hill, you will not be able to view these purchases in your Boson account, as they cannot be bought or sold on the Boson website.

PayPal payments are also accepted with a service fee of $0.30 plus 2.9% of the transaction total amount. Boson accepts PayPal payments from verified PayPal accounts only.

If you complete your purchase online using an approved credit card or PayPal account, you should receive your receipt, download link(s), and activation key(s) within minutes from noreply@boson.com. If you do not receive the e-mail in your inbox, please check your junk mail folder for this message.

Boson also accepts check or money order payments at checkout. If you purchase a Boson product using a check or money order, please follow the instructions at checkout for quickest service. Please mail a copy of your checkout form along with your check or money order to the following address:

Boson processes orders paid by money order as soon as the funds are received. Processing of orders paid by corporate or personal check may be held for five (5) business days to allow the funds to clear your bank.

Purchase orders are accepted from educational institutions and organizations only with Net 30 Day terms and at Boson’s discretion.

Wire transfer payments will be accepted; however, we will not place your order until we have received the funds from your bank. There is a $30.00 fee for using wire transfer. If you wish to pay via wire transfer, please notify us at support@boson.com so that we may provide wire transfer instructions.

Boson will gladly invoice academic, organizational, or corporate customers within the U.S., provided they submit a purchase order. All international orders must be paid for at the time of purchase. You can make payment via credit card (by using an offline card form), and we will place the order for you when we have the card information. You can also pay via wire transfer, but we will not place the order until we have received the funds. There is a $30.00 fee to pay using wire transfer.

If you are outside the states of Tennessee and Florida, our website will not charge sales tax on your order. If you are a tax-exempt entity in one of the two states listed above, please call us at 877-333-EXAM (3926), and we’ll be glad to assist you with these orders. You will need to fax a copy of your tax exemption form to Sales at 615-889-0122.

Files occasionally become corrupt during the download process. To restore missing files, images, or exhibits, please update the software. To update the software, you should do the following: First, select the exam that is missing images or exhibits from the My Exams tab and then click the Exam Tools button. From this menu, click Update current exam to begin the update.

Please allow the update to complete; you will see a message or pop-up box stating that your exam is now up to date. This should resolve any issue you have with the files, images, or exhibits.

Windows Font files can become corrupt. When this happens, an error could occur when our software attempts to use the corrupted font file. It is usually a style within the font that is affected (bold, italics, or regular).

Replace the corrupt Font on your computer with one from another computer that is running the same Operating System. Windows fonts are located in the C:\Windows\Fonts\ directory.

Solution 2:

An alternative solution: Navigate to the C:\Windows\Fonts\ directory. Locate the corrupt Font file. Copy the font file to another directory. Right-click on the copied file and from the pop-up menu, and select Install. Repeat with all copied font files.

If this solution does not work, please refer to Solution 1.

What are the minimum system requirements for the Boson Exam Environment (BEE)?

The message NetSim License has expired might be displayed in NetSim for any of the following reasons:

NetSim has not been activated.

An e-mail address for a valid Boson account has not been entered in the E-mail Address field.

The password for a valid Boson account was incorrectly typed in the Password field.

The activation key entered in the Activate keys dialog box is invalid or typed incorrectly.

NetSim has not been able to access the Internet for an extended period of time.

An activation key has not been purchased for NetSim.

You can access the NetSim Activate Keys dialog box by clicking Help > Activate Keys from the NetSim menu bar. If you have a valid activation key and are still unable to activate NetSim, you should contact Boson customer support by submitting a support ticket.

For NetSim for CCENT, the only license option available is a single-user license. In addition to single-user licenses for NetSim for CCNA and CCNP, Boson also has lab license options for academic, organizational, and corporate clients. These are delivered in a downloaded license-server setup, and Boson has options for lab-only access as well as a solution that allows students to use the software in the lab and at home. We do not sell licenses that can be shared, and licenses cannot be transferred from one registered user to another. Each end user must have his or her own license. If you would like to inquire about licenses for training employees or students, please see the Volume Solutions page of our website.

Yes, we currently have two NetSim License Server edition options for NetSim—one for Boson NetSim for CCNA and one for Boson NetSim for CCNP—in addition to regular single-user licenses. We have designed these license options especially for academic, organizational, and corporate clients. The License Server editions of NetSim are only available via download from the Boson website. The NetSim License server edition has options for lab-only access as well as a solution that allows students to use the software in the lab and at home. Each end user will need his or her own license, however, as we do not sell multi-user, seat, site or workstation licenses or any other type of license that can be shared. If you would like to inquire about licenses for training employees or students, please see the Volume Solutions page of the Boson website.

Yes, Boson does offer discounts, called Special Offers, on certain products based on your product purchase or activation history on our site. To find your Special Offer, please log in to your Boson account on our site, then click My Account, then Special Offers.

The majority of our software products are only available via download from our website. There is nothing to ship for these orders and therefore no shipping fees. We do sell some audio products on CD, and a shipping charge is assessed on these orders. If you are purchasing a product on CD, you will be able to select the shipping option of your choice during the checkout process.

ExSim and ExSim-Max Products
No returns or exchanges will be accepted or refunds granted for products purchased and delivered electronically once an activation key has been entered, except under the terms and conditions of Boson's No Pass, No Pay ExSim-Max Guarantee.

If the product activation key has not been entered, the customer has thirty (30) days from the date of purchase to return the product for refund. All sales are final thirty (30) days from date of purchase.

If the ExSim or ExSim-Max product was discounted or part of a kit, the refund will be prorated to reflect the actual purchase price of the product.

NetSim Products
If you are not satisfied with your NetSim purchase, you may return or exchange the purchased product within the first forty-eight (48) hours (the "Grace Period") after the product activation key has been entered, provided the activation occurred within thirty (30) days from the date of purchase. No returns or exchanges will be accepted or refunds granted following the initial forty-eight (48) hours from product activation. The Grace Period is not applicable to manual offline activations provided by Boson due to customer’s lack of internet access.

If the product activation key has not been entered, the customer has thirty (30) days from the date of purchase to return the product for refund. All sales are final thirty (30) days from date of purchase.

If the NetSim product was discounted or part of a kit, the refund will be prorated to reflect the actual purchase price of the product.

Boson Kits
Boson Kits offer savings off the combined list price of various product combinations, including ExSim-Max practice exam products related to specific vendors. Certain vendors might release updated versions of the related exam. If the vendor releases an updated version of the exam and if Boson offers an ExSim-Max product for that updated version, you can exchange that ExSim-Max product within six (6) months from the date of your Kit purchase. Valid only for ExSim-Max products purchased as part of a Boson Kit.

Other Terms and Conditions
Due to the nature of the Internet, online ordering your purchase from www.boson.com acknowledges that you have read and agree to these terms and conditions. Boson Software, LLC reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of sale any time.

I purchased a product from the Boson website and would like to find my receipt. How can I do that?

You can view your purchase history on our site by logging in to your Boson account, clicking My Account, and then clicking Purchase History. If you purchased a product from Cisco Press or McGraw-Hill, you will not be able to view these purchases in your Boson account, as they cannot be bought or sold on the Boson website.

PayPal payments are also accepted with a service fee of $0.30 plus 2.9% of the transaction total amount. Boson accepts PayPal payments from verified PayPal accounts only.

If you complete your purchase online using an approved credit card or PayPal account, you should receive your receipt, download link(s), and activation key(s) within minutes from noreply@boson.com. If you do not receive the e-mail in your inbox, please check your junk mail folder for this message.

Boson also accepts check or money order payments at checkout. If you purchase a Boson product using a check or money order, please follow the instructions at checkout for quickest service. Please mail a copy of your checkout form along with your check or money order to the following address:

Boson processes orders paid by money order as soon as the funds are received. Processing of orders paid by corporate or personal check may be held for five (5) business days to allow the funds to clear your bank.

Purchase orders are accepted from educational institutions and organizations only with Net 30 Day terms and at Boson’s discretion.

Wire transfer payments will be accepted; however, we will not place your order until we have received the funds from your bank. There is a $30.00 fee for using wire transfer. If you wish to pay via wire transfer, please notify us at support@boson.com so that we may provide wire transfer instructions.

If you are outside the states of Tennessee and Florida, our website will not charge sales tax on your order. If you are a tax-exempt entity in one of the two states listed above, please call us at 877-333-EXAM (3926), and we’ll be glad to assist you with these orders. You will need to fax a copy of your tax exemption form to Sales at 615-889-0122.

Boson will gladly invoice academic, organizational, or corporate customers within the U.S., provided they submit a purchase order. All international orders must be paid for at the time of purchase. You can make payment via credit card (by using an offline card form), and we will place the order for you when we have the card information. You can also pay via wire transfer, but we will not place the order until we have received the funds. There is a $30.00 fee to pay using wire transfer.

If you receive the either of the following error messages during installation, you should perform the steps listed in the solution below.

Error 1609: An error occurred while applying security settings. User is not a valid user or group. This could be a problem with the package, or a problem connecting to a domain controller on the network. Check your network connection and click Retry, or Cancel to end the install."

Error 1332: "Unable to locate the user's SID, system error 1332".

Typically, the 1609 error only occurs on Windows operating systems that use non-U.S. English as a language. If you are using the Windows Vista operating system, ensure that User Account Control (UAC) is turned off and then perform the following steps:

Click retry in the dialog box to allow the installation to continue, or restart the installation if it has been canceled.

Note: The created user and group do not need any permissions applied to them. The installer applies permissions correctly by using the SID for the CREATOR OWNER user and for the Users group. Once the installer is completed, you can remove the user and group.

The local group and the user should be entered exactly as shown in the steps (we recommend copying and pasting). If the steps do not work, we recommend making a screenshot or copying the text that shows the entries you made to create the correct local group and user and e-mail the screenshot to support@boson.com.

This error means that NetSim has detected that the file BosonNetsimInterop.dll is not registered and NetSim was unable to register the file itself. Normally, this file is registered automatically at install time or when NetSim is first run on your system.

To resolve the issue, try right-clicking the NetSim shortcut and running the program "As Administrator".

If the above did not resolve the issue, the following steps should resolve the issue described:

Run the tool (right-click and select Run as Administrator). Then select the .NET version 2.0 from the drop-down list.

In the field labeled Interop Assembly, browse for the following file: C:\Program Files\Boson Software\Boson NetSim for CCN_ 7.0\bosonnetsiminterop.dll
(Please note that if the errors are for any other dlls, you should follow the above step and browse for the file(s) that is mentioned in the error(s) for each file.)

The NetSim demo is a fully functional version of NetSim that has a limited command set. The purpose of the NetSim demo is to allow you to evaluate the applications included in the NetSim suite and how they interact with each other. We have also included a single lab that gives you the opportunity to issue a number of commands to get a better feel for the application. You can download a demo of NetSim from the Boson downloads page of the Boson website.

Boson does not have a set interval for releasing updates. Software updates are released only when significant changes are made to NetSim. For example, resolution of a major bug or the addition of new features would prompt a software update.

To ensure that the number pad Enter key works correctly every time you press it, you should open a Telnet dialog box by clicking Run in the Start menu. Then type telnet, press the CTRL key and the right bracket key ], type unset crlf, press Enter, then press Enter again.